This Thursday, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, at 6:00 p.m., the group draw for the Champions League for its edition of the 2023-24 season. A draw in which five Spanish teams participate divided into three of the four drums. Sevilla, as Europa League champion, and Barcelona, as League champion, will be in the first hype. Real Madrid and Atlético appear in the second, while Real Sociedad will be in the fourth.
The distribution of the pots is misleading, because there is more potential in pot 4, that of Real Sociedad, than in the third, in which there is no Spanish representation. Thus, the third is home to clubs such as Salzburg, Red Star, Shakthart or Braga, while the new Newcastle ‘doped’ by Saudi money appears in the fourth, Real Sociedad itself, very well reinforced with the arrival of Kieran Tierney, Arsen Zakharyan, André Silva and Hamari Traoré. The always complicated Galatasaray and Unión Berlin, one of the fashionable teams in the Bundesliga, also appear in this last hype.
Mbappé or Haaland
Analyzing the crossings that could occur, the draw could cross the real Madrid with Paris Saint-Germain of Kylian Mbappé and Luis Enrique or measure Guardiola’s Manchester City again and be able to take revenge for the elimination in the last semifinals. Sevilla and Barça, for their part, have very difficult rivals in pot 2 in which are Manchester United, Inter runner-up in the Champions League, the new Borussia Dortmund or Arteta’s Arsenal, with Milan being the rival to avoid in the pot 3.
He barca de Xavi will try to avoid a group as strong as last year (Bayern, Inter and Viktoria Plzen), from which he ended up being left out of the Champions League, while the Athletic de Simeone trusts to have one more accessible than the one that took him out of Europe last season (Porto, Milan and Liverpool), finishing last and not even being able to play in the Europa League.
The Real society returns to the Champions League ten years after his last participation, in the 2013-14 season with Jagoba Arrasate on the bench, when they faced Manchester United, Bayer Leverkusen and Shaktar Donetsk and failed to win a game. Fate could bring the people from San Sebastian face off against the English and the Ukrainians, but not the Germans, because the team led by Xabi Alonso has not qualified for the Champions League in this edition despite the good track record it has had with the tolosorra on the bench.
Sevilla, meanwhile, has participated eight times in the Champions League group stage in recent years, His greatest achievement being the pass to the quarterfinals in the 2017-18 season. Those of Mendilibar, who arrive after selling their skin at a high price in the final of the European Super Cup in Athens against City, with whom they lost on penalties, They hope to avoid the Premier teams that can fall from pot 2, both Manchester United and Arsenal, or the hard bone that appear in pot 4, Howe’s Newcastle.
Drums in the Champions League draw
bass drum 1: Manchester City, Seville, Barcelona, Naples, Bayern Munich, PSG, Benfica and Feyenoord.
bass drum 2: Real Madrid, Manchester United, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, Atlético de Madrid, RB Leipzig, Porto and Arsenal.
bass drum 3: Shakhtar Donetsk, Salzburg, Milan, Lazio, Red Star, PSV or RangersBraga and Copenhagen or Rakow.
Kick 4: Young Boys, Real Sociedad, Galatasaray, Celtic, Newcastle, Lens, Union Berlin, and Antwerp or AEK Athens.